Drawing and creativity are critical parts of human communication and personal expression, and are essential for success in every profession. Drawing is especially valuable because it improves hand-eye coordination, as well as your understanding of form and shape. It also lets you quickly communicate ideas that may be difficult to put into words. To help you hone your skills, Von Glitschka has developed the 21-Day Drawing Challenge. The goal isn't to turn you into a professional illustrator or fine artist—it's about improving your drawing skills and creative thinking, no matter if you're an expert or have never drawn more than a doodle on a notepad.

Von will assign you a drawing challenge for each day. Take the time you need to finish each challenge, and then watch the video where Von shares his own hand-drawn solution. There are no right answers here; his solutions should serve as inspiration! For more encouragement, look no further than the chapter on inspiring drawers. Each movie profiles a different artist, including people like Kate Bingaman Burt and Mattias Adolfsson. So, step up to the plate. You're just 21 days from a new creative habit. And don't forget to share your drawings via Twitter and Facebook! Use the hashtag #draw21days.

The science of drawing

I want to share an analogy with you about drawing, because I think it explainsthe important correlation between drawing and the formation of creative ideas.When you use a taxi, you do so because you need to move from point A to point B.It's a vehicle that'll carry you to the correct destination.And drawing is like a taxi for your ideas.When you draw out ideas, the drawings act like a visual vehicle,a taxi, that takes your thinking for a ride, anddelivers it to the next logical, or illogical stage of thinking.

Drawing, in combination with free thinking,is how you discover clever ideas.And there is a scientific reason for this.75% of your brain's sensory processing is dedicated to visual information.The majority of your brain's processing capacity is visually oriented.The rest of your senses, smell, touch, hearing, andtaste combined, make up a mere 25%.

So we're prewired to think visually.A study published in the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology found thatdoodling improves cognition skills, your thinking, andmemory recall by at least 30%.Drawing keeps the brain processing without affecting performance onthe main task at hand.Drawing is a preemptive measure to stop you from losing focus.

This is good news for anyone who doodles during phone calls, meetings, oreven in my case, church services.Drawing also enhances learning.There are four ways a person can intake information in order to make decisions.They are, visual, auditory, reading andwriting, and kinesthetic, or learning by doing.In order foryour brain to start learning, at least two of these modalities have to be engaged.

Maybe you like listening to classical music when you write, orat least one modality engaged associated with an emotional response.Maybe you read a great book and it makes you smile.Here's the beautiful truth though.When you draw, you engage all four modalities at the same time, andthe more you draw, the more you'll enjoy it andyou'll have the emotional response as well.Drawing is a super charger forproblem solving, whether it's a graphic or a new marketing plan.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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